World of Coffee Milan 2022
By Luis Alvarez
After two years of absence due to the pandemic, World of Coffee was meant to bring the coffee community together again in Warsaw, Poland. Well, this was the plan until the war started in Ukraine, and this is how we ended up gathering in Milan for the biggest coffee convention since 2019. Milan is an interesting city to host World of Coffee; renowned for its progressiveness in fashion, food and lifestyle, Milan is not a specialty coffee capital when compared to Berlin or Athens, in fact, Italians are known for their traditional way of approaching their coffee culture. Trust me, I drank espresso and only espresso whenever I wasn’t at the event.
Nonetheless, this beautiful city in the region of Lombardy managed to offer all its beauty for coffee professionals and enthusiasts. The event took place at the Convention Centre in two massive pavilions with everything from coffee roasters to suppliers, producers and equipment solutions. The Roasters Village is always a highlight; there you can visit the stand from roasters across Europe and the World. We got to taste Cup of Excellence coffees roasted in Munich, Triple Fermentation experimental process coffees from Ecuador and specialty grade Robusta coffee from Brazil, from which we managed to bring green coffee samples home to play with in the Coffee Lab. New trends included experimentation with coffee processing, new coffee varieties and more.
It was fantastic to reunite with incredible people and friends, like Fabian and Ricardo from Coope Tarrazu and Jonathan from Coope Agri, who we got the chance to meet during our origin trip to Costa Rica. We spent some time with the team from DR Wakefield, our coffee brokers; with them we had a couple of cupping sessions and we were introduced to the team from Daterra in Brazil, which was one of the specialty coffees released as part of our Origin Project.
When it comes to innovations, it’s worth mentioning the achievement from Hard Beans Coffee Roasters from Opole in Poland. They won the Best New Product Award at World of Coffee with their “Hard Tank” in collaboration with Fetco; it’s a brewing device connected to a tank and a tap that allows you not only to make cold brew but also nitro coffee and other beverages and serve them on draught. We got to taste Fizzy Hibiscus Tea, Nitro Panama Geisha and even alcohol-based drinks.
Milan marked the return of World of Coffee with a bang, bringing coffee people together and projecting a healthy future for the industry. Looking forward to Athens in 2023.
Ciao Milano, Grazie Mille!
Luis Alvarez
Coffee Quality Consultant
Java Republic